Hokies come to UNC looking for return to form

Virginia Tech ran into trouble when it played two teams from its old conference and the Hokies are ready to get back to work in their current league.

Coach Frank Beamer's team resumes Atlantic Coast Conference play Saturday with a visit to North Carolina (3-2, 0-1).

Getting back into league play can't come soon enough for Virginia Tech (3-2, 1-0). After going 0-for-the-Big East portion of its schedule - losing to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati - the Hokies plunged from the national rankings and some weaknesses were exposed on both sides of the ball.

So now that they're back in conference play, they hope to get back to the championship-level form they've perennially shown since they left the Big East for the ACC in 2004. It'll help if they can get their offense off to a fast start, establish a running game, develop some consistency and find a way to eliminate those inopportune breakdowns in its traditionally stout defense.

Perhaps most glaring: they allowed a 39-yard touchdown pass in the final seconds of last week's 27-24 loss to the Bearcats.

"In every area, we played well at times," coach Frank Beamer said. "Our challenge is to play well all the time, play consistent. Sometimes when you got some new people at positions and so forth, you're not as consistent as you want to be. But we're far enough along now that we need to be consistent in how we perform."

Maybe a trip back to North Carolina is just what the Hokies need. Since joining the ACC, Virginia Tech is 13-0 in regular-season games in the state and hasn't lost to UNC in Chapel Hill since 1938.

But these aren't those same old Tar Heels.

New coach Larry Fedora has his fast-paced offense humming, averaging more than 43 points and 477 total yards, and is coming off its second shutout of the season - the first time that's happened since 1996.

The big question is, how does North Carolina stack up against a name-brand program that has won six of eight Coastal Division titles?

"I think we'll know a lot about this football team after this game," Fedora said.

Virginia Tech will likely learn a lot about itself, too - like how well the Hokies can put a tough-to-swallow loss in the past and refocus on the conference chase, or if they can figure out a way to get their ground game going again. They've struggled to replace ACC offensive player of the year David Wilson, and no player has finished with more than 68 yards in a game.

"When you can run the ball, it makes teams take a second guess about stacking the box because of play action and other stuff like that," receiver Marcus Davis said. "That frees it up for us. If we get that running game going, that passing game is going to explode."

The Tar Heels don't want to let that happen, and running back Gio Bernard says the best way to do that is to keep Logan Thomas and the rest of the offense on the sideline. Of course, even that could be a challenge for an offense that puts up few long, time-consuming drives - 19 of North Carolina's 34 scoring drives this season have taken 2 minutes or less.

"It's just a matter of not turning the ball over, not letting their offense get on the field," Bernard said. "They have a great offense and it's just a matter of keeping their defense on the field and keeping our offense on the field."